Context: my girlfriend works for a streaming network/communications company based in Florida. She started working for them a year ago out of college after she graduated with her MBA. She was working as a producer for one of their shows which was geared towards youth between the ages of 13 and 23. Not only was she a producer, but she was also the face of the program and directed most of your contact. She was only getting paid $20 an hour which is definitely low, however, she was willing to accept this because she thought it would lead towards a better role in the industry she wanted to be in down the line.
Fast forward to about four days ago. She goes into her raise meeting with everything that she has accomplished with the company. She only asked for five dollars an hour more than she was currently making. They denied her for a multitude of reasons but the one that was the most fucked up was the fact that they said the content was “too female and too black”. For context as you can imagine my girlfriend is a black woman. They also said that they want her to be available anytime they need her even outside of work hours especially on weekends. Mind you there’s absolutely nothing for her to do on the weekend 95% of the time. So now not only is she getting paid next to nothing for what her qualifications are, but her company expects her to have no work life balance either. This company was directly racist and they said that someone with an MBA who is the face of the talent, and also had been working for them for over a year and was successful as an assistant is not qualified for $25 an hour. Her boss also stated that he doesn’t like it when she works from home even though most of her job can be worked remotely. But not only did they deny her and be racist towards her, they also stated that she was asking for too much money. $25 an hour comes out to $50,000 a year. She’s overqualified even for that with her degree.
She is also the only black person in her entire company. Blatant racism in corporate America doesn’t shock me, however, what does shock me is that they would hire a black woman to lead their content and be the face of the talent and then be shocked when she mainly talks about topics that cater towards young black youth. Especially when those who watch it are mostly young black kids, and the fact that they let her decide what the content should be.
TLDR: my girlfriend got denied a raise and was disrespected in the meeting by being told her content was too black and too female. She is also overqualified for the position that she’s in.